Texans vs. Titans: 3 Key players to watch in Week 6

Houston Texans running back David Johnson Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports
Houston Texans running back David Johnson Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports
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Houston Texans, David Johnson
Houston Texans running back David Johnson (31) Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

3. David Johnson, Houston Texans

It has been a unique year for David Johnson and his first season with the Houston Texans. In the first five games of the regular season, Johnson has yet to rush for 100 yards in a game, but he’s also yet to have over 17 carries in a game, too.

His most productive game was this past Sunday when the Texans offense saw him rush for 96 yards on 17 carries, averaging 5.6 yards per carry. Though he didn’t score a touchdown, it was a start to being more productive in the offense.

Since Week 1, Johnson has also had rushing totals of 77 on 11 carries, 34 on 11 carries, 23 on 13 carries and 16 carries for 63 yards in Week 4. The running back also has just two touchdowns this season, and when Bill O’Brien was in charge, the way David Johnson was used didn’t seem to work.

Now with a fresh start of sorts with Tim Kelly not having O’Brien look over his shoulder, it would be nice to see if the offense of the Texans can call some plays to get Johnson going on the outside of the rush, and see how that works, inside of doing too many run in-between the tackles as that hasn’t seemed to be overly productive this season.

What would be really nice to see are more receptions from David Johnson out of the backfield to add another wrinkle to the Houston Texans offense, as if that happens, it could free up others on the team to improve their production as well.

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